Q&A with MicroFame Media’s Michael ScheinMichael Schein is the CEO of MicroFame Media, a marketing agencyfocused on the needs of consultants. He recently sat down with ALMIntelligence’s Liz DeVito to discuss how he turns consultants into celeb-rities when they don’t have the time to do it themselves.

: What’s yourbackground and role atMicroFame Media?

Schein: In a lot of ways, I’m a writer
at heart. I have been ever since I
wrote a story in second grade called
Wrestlemania XXXIII (this was
back in the Eighties) and it was the
big hit of the class. Once I grew up,
I found out I was especially good at
using words persuasively so I got
into marketing. The reason I started
MicroFame Media was that I was
working as a freelance copywriter
and I saw all these consultants who
were investing tons of money into
branding and ending up with little
more than a decent looking website.
It occurred to me that what these
consultants actually needed was to
be highly visible to the people who
might buy from them. I realized that
it was consultants who people saw
as niche celebrities, thought leaders, and gurus that could name their
price. So I started making that happen for them and the agency grew
from there.

: What is thegenesis of MicroFame Media’sproducts and services?Schein: When I originally had theidea to start the agency, the firstthing I did was study all of the mosthigh-profile thought leaders in theconsulting world. What I found wasthat they all have a number of thingsin common. They all have a book.They all have really strong hooksthat make their content stand out.They all have a very strong digitalmedia presence. And they all havestrong connections with influencers.I quickly realized that the main rea-son that every consultant doesn’t dothe activities needed to make thishappen is lack of time. The way peo-ple usually approach writing a book,for example, is extremely time con-suming. As a result, it doesn’t getdone. So we created a very efficientprocess for executing these sorts ofthings for our clients. When clientsgo through our process, they end upwith...in a short period of time…abook, a podcast, a working strategyfor connecting with the influencersin their field, and so on. Not to men-tion all the resulting exposure thatcomes along with it.

Schein: When you’re a consultant,
management or otherwise, you’re
not selling a physical product. What
you’re actually selling, at the core,
is a set of ideas. As a result, those
consultants who do the best job at
communicating the value of their
ideas do the best in the marketplace.
All consultants know this but often
have trouble making it happen for a
variety of reasons. What we specialize in is giving consultants’ ideas
the best shot at being seen.

: How doesMicroFame Media differ fromtraditional marketing agencies?

Schein: Well, for one, our focus isnarrow—we work with consultants.Also, a lot of other agencies saythings like “we’re a social media mar-keting agency” or “we’re a contentmarketing agency”. We see things dif-ferently. From our viewpoint, socialmedia and podcasts and blogs andwhatever else are all tools to help usget the goal. And the goal is turningconsultants into thought leaders.

: What areyou working on now that you’reparticularly excited about?

Schein: I’m in the midst of writing
a book with co-author Kembrew
McLeod, a writer who I’ve been a fan
of for a while. Our book’s tentative
title is Hype: Success Secrets From
the World’s Greatest Promoters,
Propagandists, and Con Artists. It’s
based on the idea that persuasion
principles are universal, so it makes
sense to study those who do it best,
no matter who they are. It’s been a
whole lot of fun.